How to Choose Hosiery for the Summer Months

Today’s Ask the Addict feature comes courtesy of one of my Twitter followers, @Wilde_Hunt, who designs some of the most amazing leather corsets I’ve ever seen (seriously, go check out her 2009 lookbook and tell me if that leather corset dress isn’t one of the most badass things you’ve ever seen). A couple of days ago, Larissa asked for my favorite summertime hosiery recommendations, and I was happy to oblige. Since this might be a question shared by a few more readers, I thought I’d post my selections here as well.

But first, a couple of things to remember about choosing stockings for the hot season.

1) Avoid anything with a control top. Not only are control tops tights massively uncomfortable, they also don’t allow your skin (including your delicate bits) to breathe. For women, that’s a special concern since the combination of dark, damp, and dense can lead to yeast infections.

2)Make sure that whatever hosiery you buy has a cotton gusset. Cotton (unlike nylon) allows air both in and out which is essential to preventing, well, you know.

3)The lower the denier the better. For people unfamiliar with the word, denier refers to the density of the hosiery fibers, and is given in number form. The lower the denier, the sheerer the stocking. For summertime, you want to look for deniers of approximately 15 or below, with single digit deniers being ideal.

Great post and great suggestions. I was just talking with my girlfriend about hose in summer, and she believed in a hard cut off date, like June 1st. I argued that hose can (and should, lol!) be worn all year long.

I’m a patrol officer and summertime KILLS me as a “lady cop”. I totally prefer wearing something to keep my shirts and vest flap tucked in and prevent wedgies (gross, uncomfortable and unattractive [professionally speaking]). Last summer I tried compression shorts — NEVER again. The legs rolled up, continuously. I’m very active – in and out of my car, manhunts, etc. I cannot be tugging on ANYTHING.
Also….for uniform shorts – any suggestions. Those things crawl, BAD.
I think the “problem” is that I’m small-waisted so everything gathers tight at the waist, pulling up on my seat. Especially once I put on a duty belt. Any suggestions – brands?